Using Gifs for More Than Funny Cats

File this under the “why didn’t I think of this before” category.
Usually when I’m looking for feedback on motion graphics I upload the video to Basecamp and wait for notes. Then it struck me. With just a few extra clicks I can post .gifs of the animations.
They play automatically, they loop, there’s no more opening large video files in a new window and multiple versions can be seen together.
Process: Rendered in After Effects then brought into Photoshop and saved as a .gif. For these 1080p videos I saved them at 300×169 with 16 colors.

Robert

Great idea. We often take animated gifs for granted nowadays, but cases like this definitely show us how they can still be useful.

Speaking of gifs…your avatar is gold!

Eric

on 20 Sep 13

For really fast capture, we’ve been using LICECAP (http://www.cockos.com/licecap/) to grab animated GIF’s of anything on-screen in seconds.

Tobo

on 20 Sep 13

There’s actually a program that let’s you record your screen as a gif it’s really cool! it’s called Licecap
http://www.cockos.com/licecap/

Joe

on 21 Sep 13

I’ve gone though almost every program to try and create animated gifs on my mac and the best/fastest process for high quality animations I’ve found (over a 4 hour digging sessions) is to record your video with SnapProX or Quicktime then run it though this little known gem called gifrocket [1]. It’s 100x faster than going though Photoshop, you don’t have a video time limit and give you a great quality image (as long as you set the aspect ratio and quality) every time.

[1] – http://www.gifrocket.com/

Josh

on 22 Sep 13

I’m going to third on the Licecap suggestion.
I use it to collect UI Animations on my blog, great for communicating
CSS transitions without having to dabble in the imagination to much.

Useryourinterface.com

J

Alexandr

on 23 Sep 13

Animation, which can not be controlled is irritating.

Anonymous Coward

on 23 Sep 13

Thanks!
As a designer in a digital world where movement and timing is becoming increasingly important, I often wrestle with how to explain stuff like that to developers. So most of the time it becomes a process of trial and error.
This will likely work much better.